Decrease in daylight is a decrease in happiness
Courtesy of Photo Editor Kate Rodgers
“What good is the dawn
That grows into day
The sunset at night
Or living this way
For I have the warmth of the sun
Within me at night”
The Beach Boys “Warmth of the Sun”
The celebrated Beach Boys song “Warmth of the Sun,” an ode to the power of sunlight to bring joy. Unfortunately, this past week has seen Americans be robbed of an hour of warm sunshine by our antiquated arrangement of Daylight Savings Time. Twice a year, we wake up disoriented before a week of adjusting our circadian rhythms to an anthropogenic disruption that wreaks havoc on routines.
Senator Ed Markey, co-author of a bill that would make daylight savings time year round appreciates the power of sunshine; “The extra time of sunshine brings a smile to everyone’s faces, puts a spring in our step, and offers a great reason to get outside and enjoy the outdoors.” Unfortunately, with our current system of changing clocks those smiles don’t last. A 2007 study published in the journal Epidemiology describes an 11% increase in hospital reports of depressive episodes in the weeks following the autumn time shift.
America’s temporal chaos doesn’t just rob us of quality outdoor time and joy, it also robs far too many of life. Disruptions to sleep cycles are bad for our health and for our functioning while awake. Once a year, when we change our clocks an hour forward, hospitals report a 20-25% increase in heart attacks, and this increased risk continues at about 6% for the following week. Decades of research have also shown a major increase in fatal vehicle accidents in the aftermath of both time changes every year.
In 2007, Daylight Savings Time was extended by a month, giving an extra hour of sunlight to the month of October. Predictably, all the negative impacts of the clock change moved with the new system, but nevertheless continued in full force when the shift did come.
With so many problems being caused by something so simple, why has our political regime allowed them to continue? The reason isn’t that there is no popular will to reform our system of time as a poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reports that more than 70% of Americans would prefer to not change their clocks twice a year.
Of course, those familiar with the processes of American politics should not be surprised by this. Policies of comparable favorability among the electorate-abolishing the electoral college at ~60%, medicare for all at ~70%, or the green new deal at ~80%-rarely find their way into law. But there is an important difference between these policies; progressive programs pose a threat to the class interest of holders of capital, and in a political system where corporate interests wield political power in the form of “donations.” Corruption and bribery in the form of “lobbying” explain much of America’s political dysfunction, but there is no corporate lobby in defence of Daylight Savings. In fact, the support for making Daylight Savings year round is bipartisan, with even divides among most demographics including class and political party.
If American “democracy” can’t implement the will of the people when it comes to our health care or the existential threat of extinction posed by climate change, the least we deserve is an extra hour of sunlight in the evening.